‘‘I’m very wary of the Goulburn Valley talking their chances down and, don’t worry, we’ll be expecting them to hit us pretty hard.

‘‘You’re three times in a row country champions, so we’ll be very wary and we’ll be treating it as though we’re underdogs — and rightfully so.’’

Goulburn Valley unveiled its 23-man team on Wednesday night and Geelong last night confirmed its side.

Rob Condy was called up to Geelong’s VFL side and Anthony Chirnside replaced him in the interleague team.

Captain Tim Sheringham was in doubt with a hamstring injury, but trained strongly last night and will play.

Andrew Banjanin, who was in the VFL’s initial state squad, will headline Geelong’s ruck stocks, with raw youngster Ryan Abbott set to be his back-up.

Wallace was most pleased to see Rochester recruit Grant Weeks (ankle) out of Goulburn Valley’s side.

‘‘I was pretty happy to hear about that, because he played against us two years ago for Bendigo and was almost unstoppable,’’ he said.

‘‘I have heard a lot about (Nick) Warnock, though, and apparently he’s a very good young player and I’m still gathering information on the other two key forwards (Paul Newman and Daniel Lewis).’’

Wallace watched a DVD of Goulburn Valley’s win over Mornington Peninsula Nepean last year and said he had contacts with close links to his rival competition.

Goulburn Valley interleague coach Travis Ryan identified Geelong’s midfield as the danger area and Wallace agreed it was his squad’s strength.

He said wingman Nick Batchelor, injury free for the first time in a couple of years, was in stellar form. 

Wallace said Scarlett and Wojcinski were certainties and would join rising stars Tom Stewart and Luke Bath in a sturdy defence.

The backline is where Wallace expected to generate significant drive and he said Geelong’s game style, despite having defensive set-ups in place, would be ‘‘very attacking’’.

‘‘It would mean the world for Geelong (to be No. 1),’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve considered ourselves the upper echelon of competitions for a long time, but we just haven’t put that on the table as far as interleague footy goes.

‘‘You can talk all you want, but, unfortunately, our league over the past nine years can’t be rated as highly as someone like Goulburn Valley or Ovens and Murray, who have had good success.

‘‘This is the only way to do it and we really want to achieve that. We set ourselves this target from three years ago and this is our last step in the execution.’’

Geelong, which beat Ballarat last year to earn a shot at country football’s No. 1 ranking, has won the AFL Victoria Country Championships six times, including three since 2000.

GEELONG’S INTERLEAGUE SIDE

B: Luke Bath (St Mary’s), Tom Stewart (South Barwon), David Wojcinski (Newtown and Chilwell)

HB: Matthew Scarlett (South Barwon), Nicholas Spolding (Newtown and Chilwell), James Linton (Colac)

C: Nick Batchelor (Bell Park), James Allan (Lara), Adam Donohue (Grovedale)

HF: David Isbister (Lara), Jai Sheahan (Newtown and Chilwell), Rhyce Prismall (Lara)

F: Shaydon Bloomfield (Lara), Clinton Wells (South Barwon), Kieren Paliouras (St Joseph’s)

Foll: Andrew Banjanin (St Mary’s), Tim Sheringham (Bell Park), Casey Tutungi (South Barwon)

Inter: Ryan Abbott (Grovedale), Mitch Herbison (South Barwon), Jarrod Young (Grovedale), Stephen Paulke (Bell Park), Anthony Chirnside (Geelong West-St Peter’s)

GV’S INTERLEAGUE SIDE

B: Andrew Riordan (Swans), Tim Looby (United), Matt O’Keefe (Seymour)

HB: Tom Sheldon (Kyabram), Jason Morgan (Kyabram), Dan Lovick (Swans)

C: Simon Buckley (Echuca), Brendon Hollow (Tatura), Tom Sullivan (Tatura)

HF: Simon Seddon (Kyabram), Daniel Lewis (Mooroopna), James Wall (Tatura)

F: James Brain (Rochester), Nick Warnock (Benalla), Paul Newman (Kyabram)

Foll: Paul Kirby (Tatura), Brady Green (Rochester), Luke Morgan (Benalla)

Inter: Linc Wellington (Tatura), Tom Durward (Tatura), Sam Vale (Rochester), Liam Ogden (Kyabram), Tom Miller (Tatura)